The row over the sale of a very valuable site in south Dublin to a local GAA club has escalated with the Catholic church publicly accusing a local rugby club of deliberately undermining the sale.
The club insists it is open to meeting church officials to address some of its concerns.
Foxrock Parish, which manages the five-acre site – conservatively valued at €10 million – on behalf of a diocesan trust recently decided to sell the land, that is in need to upgrading, to the local GAA club, Geraldines P Moran, which has played there since it was acquired in 1959.
The deal explicitly protected the rent-free access of other users, notably a local minis rugby club, St Brigid’s RFC. A side agreement between the parish and the GAA club, which has been seen by The Irish Times, stipulates that both parties “agree to permit the continued use of the premises by the sporting clubs and other users in the same manner as has taken place to date”.
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However, rugby club officials have called the deal a “land grab” by the GAA and “an open naked attempt at controlling our club”. It sent a solicitor’s letter to the parish calling on the church to stop the sale.
The parish has now responded publicly for the first time, issuing a letter to all parishioners and raising the matter from the altar at Masses this weekend.
It said that allegations across media and social media by the rugby club that their use of the field is under threat “is at variance with the facts and the evidence which have been shared both verbally and in writing with the rugby club”.
The church letter says it has met representatives of the rugby club on several occasions over eight weeks “and sought feedback via their legal advisers to ensure that the agreement accurately captured their current usage”.
“The rugby club have ignored this request and instead have conducted an intensive PR campaign both within the parish and at national level ... all are based on an incomplete account of the facts,” the church said in its letter.
“Their actions have clearly shown that they have no interest in engaging with the parish and are intent on undermining the sale of Foxrock Parish Field.”
However, a spokesman for St Brigid’s said the letter released by the church was “not factually correct”.
“The letter is incomplete and disingenuous,” said Morgan Cassidy, who is chairman of the club which is run in a voluntary capacity by parents of the national school age children.
“We are all available to meet the church at any stage,” he said. “It is just really sad that this is the situation.”
The parish said it intends to “proceed quickly” with the sale of the land but was offering the rugby club and its members “one last opportunity” to respond to its request for clarification and feedback of any issues arising.
It said its decision to sell the land to the GAA club was the “most practical and optimum solution” to ensure the land was retained for community sporting purposes for the next 999 years, “while protecting access for all users”.
It challenged the rugby club stance that it enjoys “equal access” to the land, saying the original purchase of the site back in 1959 came “following representations of Foxrock Geraldines GAA club, who were at the time the only users of the grounds”.
The club had used the grounds continuously since then, the church said, with the rugby club’s use beginning in the 1980s. It added that the GAA club currently used the grounds for around 20 hours a week compared to the rugby club’s “approximately five hours” and noted that the rugby club had 150 members while the GAA club had 850.
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